Ride

v. i. [imp. RODE, or RID; p. p. RID, or RIDDEN; p. pr. & vb. n. RIDING.] [A'S. ridan, L. Ger. riden, D. rĭden, Icel. ríða, rīðh, Sw. rida, Dan. ride, O. H. Ger. ritan, N. H. Ger. reiten.]

1Sense 1. To be carried on the back of any animal, as a horse.

2Sense 2. To be borne in a carriage; as, to ride in a coach, in a car, and the like.

3Sense 3. To be borne on or in a fluid.

Men once walked where ships at anchor ride. Dryden.

4Sense 4. To be supported in motion; to rest on something; to sit.

Strong as the axletree On which heaven rides. Shak.

On whose foolish honesty My practices rid easy. Shak.

5Sense 5. To manage a horse well.

He rode, he fenced, he moved with graceful ease. Dryden.

6Sense 6. To support a rider, as a horse; to move under the saddle; as, a horse rides easy or hard, slow or fast.

To ride easy (Naut.), to pitch lightly. — To ride hard, to pitch vehemently.

Synonyms— Drive. — RIDE, DRIVE. Ride originally meant (and is so used throughout the English Bible) to be carried either on horseback or in a vehicle of any kind. At present, in England, drive is the word applied in most cases to motion in a carriage; as, a drive around the park, &c.; while ride is appropriated to motion on a horse, so that a “ride on horseback” would be tautology. Johnson seems to sanction this distinction by giving “to travel on horseback” as the leading sense of ride; though he adds “to travel in a vehicle” as a secondary sense. This latter use of the word still occurs to some extent; as, the queen rides to Parliament in her coach of state, &c. This distinction, though gaining ground in America, does not prevail among us to any considerable extent. “The richest inhabitants exhibited their wealth not by riding in gilded carriages, but by walking the streets with trains of servants.” Macaulay.

1Sense 1. To sit on, so as to be carried; as, to ride a horse.

They ride the air in whirlwind. Milton.

2Sense 2. To manage insolently at will.

The nobility could no longer endure to be ridden by bakers, cobblers, and brewers. Swift.

3Sense 3. To cause to ride; hence, to carry. [Vulgar.]

4Sense 4. To convey, as by riding; to make or do by riding. [Rare.]

The only men that safe can ride Mine errands on the Scottish side. . . And we can neither hunt nor ride A foray on the Scottish side. W. Scott.

To ride and tie, to take turn with another in labor and rest;—from the expedient adopted by two persons with one horse, one of whom rides the animal a certain distance, and then ties him for the use of the other, who is coming up on foot.